Prince of Ninjas
by Keisuke Sora
Summary: The Seigaku tennis team has been experiencing problems with the other teams in the prefectural tournament. Ryuuzaki-sensei decides to call upon the help of the Hidden Leaf ninja to become part of the team and protect them. 'M' for later chapters.
1. The Mission

_October 22__nd__ 5:38 p.m. Tokyo, Japan._

"That is the last time I try to be nice to the monkey king," said a very ruffled looking Echizen Ryoma to an equally ruffled Momoshiro Takeshi. "I mean, all I wanted was to give him the Ponta that I couldn't finish!" He huffed angrily. Atobe Keigo had gone ballistic when Echizen had tried to offer it and nearly taken the poor boy's head off.

"Whatever," Momo said doubting whether Echizen had really meant no harm, "Just forget about him and we'll go get some burgers."

Echizen instantly brightened up at this, "Is it your treat?" He said innocently.

Momo, knowing how much his wallet had paid for it last time, was reluctant to agree, but, with some prodding, conceded. "Fine, Echizen," Then Momo added under his breath, "But you owe me, big time."

The two regulars started walking towards their favorite burger joint, when, hurtling out of nowhere, came nearly the entire tennis team, almost running the pair over in the process. On his way by, Kikumaru Eiji noticed the two.

"What's going on, Eiji-senpai?" Momo asked confusion evident on his face.

"Inui is what's going on Momo! If you value your lives, I suggest you and Ochibi run for it before his newest concoction catches you!" And Eiji started running again.

"Ch-Chotto matte, Eiji-senpai! What do you mean, 'Before it catches us'?" But Eiji had already rounded the corner along with the rest of the tennis team.

"Ne, Momo-senpai, I don't think we should stick around to find out what Kikumaru-senpai meant. Do you?" Echizen asked, fear creeping into his voice. Momo nodded and he and Echizen kept going until the familiar scent of old fry oil and charred meat reached their nostrils. The two entered the shop and placed their orders.

"Ahh, I'm stuffed," Echizen said in a satisfied tone. "Yeah, but my wallet isn't you brat!" Echizen just smirked and kept walking towards his house.

Suddenly, a thought struck Momo. "Ne, Echizen. What do you think baa-san wants to talk to the team about tomorrow?"

Echizen gave Momo a confused look and proceeded to roll his eyes as if saying, 'Did you actually expect me to have been awake then?'

"Baka," Momo grumbled, "Well, while you were off in your own little world, some of us were actually paying attention to what Ryuuzaki-sensei had to say! She said that there would be an extremely important meeting for the club tomorrow at noon."

"Oh," Echizen replied, uncaringly, "Probably about the new exchange students or something. Since the issue about the regulars team was settled. I have a feeling that rule was implemented especially for them…" Echizen trailed off as if in deep thought.

Momo frowned, "What issue about the team? What exchange students? I didn't hear anything about those." Echizen stopped and looked at Momo incredulously.

"Jesus, you think _I _don't pay attention? Apparently there are three new transfer students coming tomorrow, two brothers and a sister. Apparently they are the closest thing we'll find to high school pros." Echizen said in a worried tone.

"Don't mind, Echizen. No one's as good as you." Momo said causing his kohai to blush.

"Betsuni. Let's just go, Momo-senpai, before that _thing_ catches up with us." The pair started walking again towards Echizen's house.

Later on, as Echizen was getting ready for bed, he thought, 'Well, tomorrow ought to be interesting.'

And how right he was.

_October 19__th__ 9:46 p.m. Konohagakure Land of Fire_

"Eh? Whaddya mean baa-chan wants to talk to Team Seven?" A comatose Uzumaki Naruto mumbled to a fuming Haruno Sakura.

"I mean what I said, Naruto-baka. Now get your lazy ass dressed and get to the Hokage's office. I think she's assigning us a mission." At the word 'mission', Naruto immediately perked up.

"Yosh! Finally! Tsunade no baa-chan hasn't given us a good mission in ages! I wonder what it'll be?" The excited blonde said loudly.

"I don't know, but if you hurry up, we can go find out, dobe," Said a familiar voice from behind Sakura.

The pinkette moved to the side to reveal one Uchiha Sasuke glaring at the hyper jinchuriki as if to tell him to hurry up. Being wary of the death glare he was receiving, Naruto slipped on his favorite orange and black jacket, closed and locked the front door of his tiny apartment behind him and began the walk towards the Hokage's mansion.

_Knock, knock, knock_.

"Come in," came the rough, female voice from within the Hokage's chambers. Naruto turned the handle and flung the door open with a big grin on his face.

"Okay, baa-chan! What have you got for us today?" "Calm down, Naruto," Sakura said, rather sternly, "Just ten minutes ago, weren't you whining about how you wanted to stay in bed and sleep all day?"

Naruto looked to Sasuke for help, but he wasn't paying any attention to the quarrel. Instead, his attention was riveted on something at the foot of the Hokage's desk. Naruto turned his head to see what the reason was for Sasuke to not be totally focused on their fight, like he usually was. Sitting at the foot of her desk were three oddly shaped bags, one blue, one orange and one pink that had each of their names on them.

Naruto's attention was drawn from the bags when a rough voice said, "Ahh, you must be the three ninja that Hokage-sama has assigned to this mission," Naruto looked up to see a tall woman in her mid fifties, smiling down at them, "Come in and I'll explain the mission to you."

The blonde followed in his two team mates and shut the door after himself. "All right. So here's how it is, you three," Said Tsunade, "This is Ryuuzaki Sumire. She is the coach of the Seishun Gakuen tennis team. Your mission is to protect that team at all costs. Your chakra will be sealed for a short amount of time and you will be placed onto the regulars team as players. The reason for your chakra being sealed is so that you can't get in by unfair methods. Have I made myself clear?"

Tsunade stood from behind her desk and shuffled a few papers into order while the three ninja bobbed their heads in unison.

Tsunade paused her actions to sneak a glance at Naruto. She had thought that he would give her hell about having his chakra locked. But that didn't seem to be the case. He actually looked excited.

Abruptly, she heard a small, feminine snort. The platinum blonde Hokage stared at Sakura with incredulous eyes. "Sakura? Have you got something to say?"

Without warning, the medic nin burst into peals of laughter. When she had calmed down enough to speak, she said, "It's just… Well it's… Tennis? We have to protect a bunch of hoity-toity tennis brats? No offence, Ryuuzaki-san, but why exactly do you need ninjas to protect your tennis team? I mean, what's the worst they could do to one another?" Ryuuzaki's shock at Sakura's sudden outburst dissolved immediately. "May I call you Sakura-san?" She asked the pinkette.

Sakura just nodded, the smile still on her face. "Sakura-san, even without the kinds of powers that you kids have, some of the things those boys do to each other, just to win… It's absolutely outrageous. There's sabotage and threats. Not to mention some of the methods they use to achieve their goals. These kids are ruthless and will stop at nothing to win. That is why I hired the most skilled ninja team in your village."

The three ninja bowed their heads in embarrassment at being called the best. "Now I only have one question for you three." Tsunade said seriously. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke looked up at her tone. "Will you accept the mission?" Team Seven was stunned. Never before had they been given the opportunity to refuse a mission. While Sakura and Sasuke were mulling it over, Naruto decided that they had had enough time to do so. "Of course we will! Tennis is awesome!" Said the excited blonde. Sakura was about to tell him off for not thinking it through but Sasuke cut in before her, "For once, I agree with the dobe. I think we should take this mission. It sounds interesting."

"Hehe. That's Teme-speak for 'Sounds fun'," Naruto said with a smirk, receiving a glare from the Sharingan user.

"Yosh. Pack your bags you three. You're spending the next eight months in Tokyo, Japan."

As the teens were about to leave, Tsunade called out to them one last time, "Oh and you'll need these bags," Tsunade said motioning to the blue, orange and pink bags at the foot of her desk, "They have your tennis equipment in them. I had one of your rackets tailored to how much power you use without chakra, and one tailored to how much you use with chakra. Don't mix them up."

And with that, Team Seven left to begin packing for the trip to Tokyo, Japan.


	2. The Meeting

**_Echizen Ryoma's Point of View_**

_Ryoma's sane thoughts_

_**Ryoma's somewhere in between thoughts**_

**Ryoma's insane thoughts.**

**_October 23 8:12 a.m. Seishun Gakuen_**

"All right regulars. Gather around," Tezuka-bouchou, shouted to us.

The eight regulars, including myself, stopped what they were doing and gathered around bouchou and Ryuuzaki-sensei.

Standing off to the left were three gorgeous teenagers, one boy with blond hair and sky blue eyes, one boy with black hair and charcoal eyes and one girl with bubblegum pink hair and sea green eyes.

"These are our new transfer students. Their names are Uzumaki Naruto-san, Uchiha Sasuke-san and Haruno Sakura-san. Please treat them gently," He said motioning to each one respectively, "They will be competing in the monthly ranking tournament. I have a few things to say before we start though. Number one; don't judge your opponents by their appearance. We all know what happened when you did that to Echizen right?" Bouchou said, glancing at Arai-senpai, who looked down in shame, "And Second, the order for the ranking tournament will be posted during the practice after school, which is when we will also start the tournament. Now, don't let your guard down. You are now dismissed!"

But I didn't go back to practice. I was too entranced by the beautiful people in front of me. They all moved with the grace of ninjas that you read about in manga, as they got out their rackets. And they seemed to hear everything going on around them, as if they had super senses or something.

But I knew one thing was for sure. The blond was like walking sex. He was a modern day Adonis. I just had to talk to him.

I tried to walk over there and start a conversation with the most gorgeous thing to ever grace a tennis court but he seemed to hear me before I had even taken a step though and looked up.

Then he smiled the most beautiful smile I had ever seen in my entire life. I was so spellbound by his beauty that I didn't notice the other two chuckling at my dreamy look or the fact that my foot was still two inches of the ground.

Only when the pink haired one started full out laughing, did I realize that I must have looked like an idiot standing there with my foot up in the air and my jaw dangling.

I quickly shut my mouth and continued walking towards them, pulling my cap down to hide the increasing blush.

I noticed something out of the corner of my eye then. The one called Uchiha was whispering something to the Adonis. Out of the blue, he blushed scarlet and said in the most musical voice I had ever heard, "**TEME!** I do not have a fanclub! He was staring at Sakura-chan, not me!"

And that was what did it for me. I just had to talk to him. "Actually," I said over the shouting, "I _was_ staring at you. But only because you looked so stupid with that big a grin on your face," **_Nice going Ryoma. Ruin your only of getting to know him with a comment like that._**

But my comment only caused him to grin more. And I was once again, spellbound. He had three whisker marks on either cheek. Like some kind of fox.

"Hehehe, you remind me of Sasuke-teme. I like you. What's your name?" I was struck dumb! I had just thoroughly insulted this golden-haired god and he didn't even try to punch me!

"E-Echizen Ryoma," I managed to stutter out.

"Ahh, Ryuuzaki-sensei and Tezuka-san told us about you! You're the super rookie, ne?" The pink haired girl said. **I wonder if that's her natural color?**

"You also remind me of Hinata-chan…" The beautiful boy said quietly. But obviously the other two heard because at that moment he received two consecutive slaps across the back of the head, causing him to flinch forward.

"Naruto-baka, don't go making enemies on your first day you moron!" The girl, (I think her name was Sakura-san,) hissed at him.

"Sorry about him," Sakura-san said to me, "He's quite outgoing so it takes a while to get used to him. Hell it took me fifteen _years_ to get used to his loud, obnoxious voice. And even then, it still drives me up the wall."

They must have gone to the same school or something and that was how they knew each other.

"Don't sweat it," I said coolly, completely contradicting the storm inside me, "Momo-senpai and Kikumaru-senpai are the exact same as him."

Seeing the look of confusion on her face, I pointed to Kikumaru-senpai and Momo-senpai correspondingly.

"Those are Kikumaru Eiji-senpai, a third year and Momoshiro Takeshi-senpai, a second year."

A blush came across her face as she looked over at Mom-senpai and I realized that he must have been staring at her for quite a while now, seeing as there was drool rolling down his chin.

"Ne, Sakura-chan," Naruto said loudly and with a big smirk, "I think someone has a crush on you!" This caused the pinkette to turn the same color as her hair and, in turn, Momo-senpai wiped his mouth, blushed scarlet and turned away.

Naruto turned back to me and suddenly gasped.

"Oh my god," He shouted, "I have to call you Ryo-chan? Please? Huh, please?" I was astounded. Not only had he just asked me if he could call me by my first name, he had decided I was a girl! I heard giggling all around me.

"But I-I'm not a girl…" I couldn't even form a coherent sentence! The giggling intensified.

"Yosh, it's settled! I'll call you Ryo-chan!"

The uninhibited giggling rapidly turned into full out laughter as my face blushed just as badly as Momo-senpai's.

Then, he did the unthinkable. He launched himself forward and _glomped_ me!

The silence was suddenly deafening. I had to get out of there fast, before I decided to jump him then and there.

I quickly extricated myself from his crushing grip and bolted for the bathroom.

As soon as the stall door was locked, I decided that I would hide here for the rest of practice. And I did.

The only thing I didn't count on was which classes I would have with the new trio of hotties in, and, sadly my life came to an abrupt halt when I found out that that gorgeous blond was in all of my freaking classes!!! I could have died right there!

I walked into my first period English class that morning and I didn't even have time to register what was on the chalkboard before I was tackled to the floor by a lump of blond and covered in a bone shattering bear hug.

_"YATTA, RYO-CHAN'S IN MY CLASS,"_ Screamed the overly happy blond.

Luckily, I didn't have to wait long before Sakura-san pulled him off of me, lecturing him for being careless.

_"How _dare _you touch_ my _Ryoma-sama? And don't you_ ever _call him that again you_ demon_,"_ hissed a horribly familiar voice. Without warning, Osakada Tomoka was standing in front of me, glaring daggers at Naruto.

"Go away Osakada. I don't need you to baby me," I said.

This seemed to work because she stood down and whispered to me, "If that girl ever does anything to you again, don't be afraid to call me."

I almost laughed at the thought of Naruto being a girl but I figured it would ruin the moment.

I turned back to Naruto to see him enveloped in a hug by Sakura-san.

"Don't worry. That bitch didn't mean anything by it. She just has a crush on Ryoma-san and was jealous because Naruto-baka got to hug him when nobody else does."

Sakura-san looked to me with sad eyes and I suddenly noticed that the ball of blond under there was shaking uncontrollably.

"Naruto has a rough life back in our village," Sakura-san said quietly, "All of the other kids pick on him because of his blond hair and whisker marks. They say he looks like a fox demon," At this, Naruto started quivering even more.

I had to think of something to say, before someone came and asked me what I had done to upset the boor boy.

"She's right, you know," I said softly, "But _I_ don't think you look like a demon." The quivering lessened a little, "In fact," the shaking stopped all together, "I think you're actually quite adorable."

Dammit! I hadn't meant to say it like that! But it seemed to have the right effect because Sakura-san's eyes grew wide and she released her grip on him as he uncurled.

He looked up at me with sky blue eyes tinted red from crying and I knew at that moment that I never wanted to see this person cry again.

"Re-*hicc*- really, Ryo-chan thinks *hicc* I'm cute?" Naruto hiccoughed.

I didn't have time to answer though because, at that moment, the last member of the group, Uchiha-san, came storming over, "Dobe, what's wrong," he said softly.

I then realized that 'Dobe' and 'Teme' weren't just insults for them. They must have used those terms for so long that they became nicknames, just like how Kikumaru-senpai calls me 'Ochibi-chan'.

"Teme… Just keep t-the Osakada bitch away f-from me."

Uchiha-san stood up and came to me, "Echizen-san, what happened between him and Osakada-san? And I want to know the _whole_ thing," he said with a death glare that could rival mine.

"Naruto glomped me and then Osakada called him a demon. Then he curled up into a ball and I said something that got him to uncurl. I swear, I had nothing to do with it," I promised.

Uchiha-san looked amazed. "Osakada-san called him a demon? And he didn't kill her? And _you_ got him to uncurl? I thought only Kakashi-sensei could do that…" He mumbled the last part.

"Sorry, Uchiha-san," I started, "But who's Kakashi-sensei? Is he a new teacher here? Is he Naruto's father?"

Uchiha-san snorted suddenly. "Uchiha-san was my father and he's dead. I'm just Sasuke."

"Well then you can call me Ryoma," I announced.

"Naruto's father is dead too. Kakashi-sensei is our martial arts instructor. You should come to the dojo some time and watch the dobe and I spar."

Naruto must have heard this because he suddenly perked up and said, "Ooh yeah! Sasuke-teme and I spar all the time! You should come to the dojo with us after the ranking tournament. Sakura-chan can teach you some of her moves and then you can watch Sasuke and I spar. Well, it's kind of dangerous to get anywhere near of one of our fights so you would probably be better off sitting off to the side…"

As he rambled, I couldn't help but notice the way his friends looked at him. It was as if they would do anything for him; like they really and truly loved him.

"By the way, Ryoma," Sasuke said quietly, "What did you say to get him to get him to come out of that fetal position? Whenever I try to get him to tell me, he just blushes and shakes his head. So what was it," Sasuke asked me curiously.

Aw crap, I knew this was coming. The only ones who had heard me say anything were Sakura-san and Naruto.

"I told him he was cute." _**Kuso, mouth; stop acting without my brain's permission!**_ But Sasuke didn't seem disturbed or angry at me.

Instead, he snickered, "Well duh, the blond usuratonkatchi is cute. He's fucking gorgeous!"

Seeing the look of confusion on my face, Sasuke elaborated.

"I dated him a while back. We have clashing personalities. I won't try to steal him back from you. But know this; if you hurt him in any way at all, I will not hesitate to put you in your grave at an early age."

The raven haired boy topped off this speech with an icy glare that made me think twice about messing with him. I nodded my head rigidly.

The rest of the day passed smoothly. There were no girls hanging off of me, (all though I did get some weird looks from the teachers at how friendly I was being,) and then it was time for the tournament.

I walked down to the courts with Naruto, Sakura-san and Sasuke.

If there was one thing I could immediately tell you about the group, they were hyper. Even Sasuke was very animated at times. The smallest things made them happy.**(1)**

Well if things like a simple smile can make them happy, I wouldn't have to wait long to see what tennis did for them.

I got changed and quickly headed out to the courts with my racket stopping to check the order for the ranking tournament. My first match was against Naruto.

I stepped up to the net, prepared to say something clever but he beat me to it, "Ne, Ryo-chan? How about we make a bet? Loser has to take the winner on a date at one restaurant of his choice. Is it a deal?" I blushed and nodded my head, pulling my cap lower,

"Well then," I said with a witty comeback already at my lips, "I had better not lose."

We shook hands sending an electric tingle up my spine and walked to our sides of the court, Naruto winning the toss.

I decided to use my right hand to test my opponent's strength. I was not going to make the mistake of miscalculating his power and ending up with a sprained wrist.

Naruto bounced the ball with his right hand once… twice… three times…

Then he looked up at me and smirked. God, how could something so evil be so good at the same time!?

Naruto threw the ball up into the air as high as he could without losing sight of it and as it came down, so did his left hand in a high-speed smash serve.

The ball bounced off the ground on my side with force enough to knock anyone off their feet. Anyone but me, that is. I took the serve in an almost effortless forehanded shot, keeping the ball on my racket just half a second longer than I needed to, to test out its power. It was a fairly good shot, but I had a feeling he was holding out on me.

I suppose Naruto had the same idea because I heard him shout, "Come on, Ryo-chan! I know you're better than this! If you give it all you've got, then I will too!"

He returned my forehanded shot with a high lob of his own, inviting me to give him a smash. I jumped into the air and heaved the ball with all my might, causing Horio and Kastuo to tumble backwards from the impact against the fence.

"L-Love-fifteen," I heard the referee call.

Now it's time to queue in the whispering of amazement. These people see one smash and suddenly, not even their own matches matter anymore, I thought angrily.

Our first match ended with return aces made by me, but once again, the hunch about Naruto not using his all of his power came back full force.

_If he wants to play it that way then fine._ I looked up at him and smirked switching my racket to my left hand.

His eyes grew wide for a fraction of a second before he grinned widely. Then, Naruto switched hands too. He switched to his right hand.

I bounced the ball three times then threw it up into the air. At the last moment, I decided to use the left-handed Twist Serve that would bounce away from him. I hadn't expected him to be as surprised as he was.

"Fifteen-love," The referee called.

Naruto's eyes grew ridiculously wide and he shouted at the tops of his lungs, "OI, TEME! DID YOU SEE THAT WICKED SERVE?! IT WAS BETTER THAN YOURS! RYO-CHAN YOU GOTTA TEACH IT TO ME!!"

I looked over to see Sakura-san and Sasuke standing there wide eyed, still staring at the place the ball had landed.

As Sasuke looked back up, his eyes narrowed and I could've sworn I had seen bits of red bleeding into the edges.

No, I thought, it was probably just a trick of the light.

I turned back to Naruto, "Come on blondie. I know you can hit back something as simple as that," I taunted.

Naruto stuck out his tongue at me and prepared to receive my next serve. I bounced the ball a few times and threw it up into the air, and then I hit it with as much force as I could muster.

I could practically see the cogs turning in Naruto's head, trying to figure out which way the ball would bounce.

I smirked as the ball flew past him, thinking that he wasn't going to catch it; but I was wrong. Naruto caught up with it easily, sending me a back handed slice, adding more spin to the ball.

I got to it a step early and sent it back with a lob. The blond ran forward, jumped into the air and smashed the ball downward and landed with the grace of a cat. But I was more prepared than he was.

I ran forward and slid on my heels then returned the ball with a harsh upward slice.

Naruto grinned, thinking it would be out but instead of continuing on that straight path, the ball curved downward just before his feet and bounced.

"Drive B," I said with a smirk. It seemed one shot wasn't enough because he kept giving me smashes and I kept returning them with a Drive B.

"Game," the ref called, "Echizen leads, with two games to love!" By now, a vast crowd had gathered around our court to watch the match between the supposed rookie tensai and the new kid.

The next game, Naruto took with an unpredictable serve akin to the Habu serve but Naruto's had more spin and less power.

We played out the rest of the matches and ended with a tie-break. One of the rules of the tournaments, sadly, was that tie-breaks wouldn't be played, which meant that we both automatically made it onto the regular's team.

I walked up to the net and thrust out my hand to shake. Naruto grasped my hand and suddenly I was yanked forward. I closed my eyes for a moment, fearing falling over, but it never happened. Instead, I felt a slight pressure on my lips.

I cracked my eye open to reveal half-lidded cerulean eyes looking at me intently. I couldn't suppress the shiver that went down my spine as Naruto read me like a book. And then it was over. The kiss ended just as abruptly as it had started.

As Naruto walked away I swore that I could feel cold eyes boring into my back but when I looked, no one was there. That was slightly creepy, I thought. But I paid no mind as I walked back to the change rooms to prepare to go home.

I opened my bag to put my racket into and I found a piece of paper with a name, a phone number and a sticker on it. On closer inspection, I realized that the sticker was the face of a fox.

_Che, _I thought, _that baka thinks I'll want his phone number after that._

**Of course you do you moron! You're fucking in love with him!**

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(1)

This line reminds me of the song All the Small Things by Blink 182

HI PEOPLE!!!!! This is jeeg94 here with a new fic which (for once) I am actually ecstatic about! I can't believe I actually wrote this! It sooooo doesn't sound like me! Anyways, comments and constructive criticism are welcome but no flames please!

Lots of love,

Jeeg94


	3. My apologies people!

Hey people!

I'm sorry that this is taking so long, I'm just having a really hard time getting down to it right now… see I just transferred to a new school and I don't get to see my friends much so they're constantly dragging me back and forth to their houses so I hardly have any time to work on my fic! I really hope you can understand but if not then I just hope you'll put up with it if the next one is not up to snuff. If you see anything wrong or messed up, don't hesitate to put it in a message! For example: Chapter 'x', line 'x', word 'x' (x being the variable and it can mean pretty much whatever you want it to mean.) I do hope to get the chapter up soon so don't do any bashing while you wait (please). Again, thanks for all your support and I really appreciate you all putting up with me! 3

Lots of love,

jeeg94


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